NFL Draft Turns 50--a Solid 50 Instead of Flashy 50

Sports lawyers tend to think of pro football’s annual college draft as an illegal institution.

It only exists by special permission of the league’s association of players.

And some people doubt if a union of pros can speak for a bunch of college students.

Nonetheless, the draft has lasted for the last 49 of pro football’s 65 years. And it will turn 50 at dawn Tuesday when the 28 National Football League franchises divide up 336 of the nation’s most talented amateurs.

A 12-round lottery, it is scheduled to begin at 5 a.m. PDT and end in one long day.

Casual fans may be surprised when the pros start by selecting three rather obscure linemen: defensive ends Bruce Smith of Virginia Tech and Ray Childress of Texas A&M; and offensive tackle Bill Fralic of Pitt.

Getting a jump on the season, the Buffalo Bills have already chosen and signed Smith--a distinction normally reserved for name stars. They would have preferred one of those--but this is a no-name draft.

“There aren’t any matinee idols this year,” Mike Hickey said this week from New York, where he is the Jets’ personnel director.

“You won’t find many exceptional players in this group, but it’s a more solid draft, top to bottom, than some people think,” said Ron Wolf, chief scout of the Raiders.

As many as 14 linemen, half of them on offense, could be named on the first round.

“That’s the strength of this draft,” said New England’s director of player development, Dick Steinberg. “On the other hand, there are few quarterbacks, and the only bona fide running back is (North Carolina’s) Ethan Horton.”

In the opinion of Dallas Cowboy Vice President Gil Brandt, only one or two of those selected Tuesday will ever be seen in the Pro Bowl.

“You’ll see them, though,” he said. “You’ll see them on a lot of pro fields. They will complement a lot of teams. If you had to play 22 of them at one time, you wouldn’t win many games. But if you already own most of a solid team, you can round it out in this draft.”

George Young, general manager of the New York Giants, calls it one of the deepest drafts of recent years.

“We (the Giants) have graded as many make-it players this year as ever,” Young said. “Although the grades aren’t quite as high in the first two rounds, they’re as high or higher from the third through the seventh. You get down to the 12th round this year, you can still get a player who can make it in this league.”

Deep. Useful. Unresplendent. Unknown. That’s the class of 1985.

THE BLUE CHIPS In the judgment of most NFL scouts, six of the players drafted this week will become instant starters in the NFL.

These are the top-ranked defensive linemen, Smith and Childress; two offensive linemen--Fralic and Florida’s Lomas Brown; wide receiver Eddie Brown and North Carolina running back Ethan Horton.

Only nine others have a chance to start this season, the scouts said.

They are wide receivers Al Toon of Wisconsin and Jerry Rice of Mississippi Valley, tackle Ken Ruettgers of USC, defensive end Ron Holmes of Washington, linebackers Chris Doleman of Pitt and Duane Bickett of USC, and three defensive backs, Richard Johnson of Wisconsin, Jerry Gray of Texas and Derrick Burroughs of Mississippi State.

These are the 1985 blue chips--the top 15. Between them and the rest of this year’s draft class, the dropoff in NFL ability is acute.

THE USFL HEISMANS

Herschel Walker’s day in the NFL draft will finally come Tuesday. His college teammates are graduating, and, now a USFL star, the former Heisman Trophy winner from Georgia can be named by any NFL club.

“Herschel will be selected in the first three rounds, maybe the first,” Brandt said. “It depends on how wide you think the cracks are in the (USFL) dike.”

Walker’s quarterback in New Jersey, Doug Flutie, the reigning Heisman winner from Boston College, will also be drafted by an NFL team this week.

Brandt on Flutie at the halfway point of the USFL season: “His stock isn’t as high as it was the night he beat Miami.”

THE CALIFORNIANS The leading prospects from the L.A. area, all potential first-round picks, are Ruettgers and two other members of the USC team--linebackers Duane Bickett and Jack Del Rio.

Tackle Daren Gilbert of Cal State Fullerton could be one of as many as eight offensive linemen named on the first round.

Steve Bono of UCLA could be the first quarterback drafted. In an off year for quarterbacks, Bono and Cal’s Gale Gilbert are two of the top three. The other is Colgate’s Steve Calabria.

A quarterback sleeper is Paul Berner of Pacific.

Tory Nixon of San Diego State is listed as one of the leading cornerbacks.

DEL RIO: UP OR DOWN? Twelve months ago today, Del Rio was the West Coast’s top prospect. This spring the Trojan linebacker has even been passed by a teammate, Bickett. What happened?

“Del Rio might be this year’s Dan Marino,” said Hickey, the Jets’ personnel chief. “When Marino was a senior, he was overscouted and dropped from first to sixth. They might have overscouted Del Rio, too. With a marked senior like Del Rio, you get too analytical, you look at too much film.”

Hickey can only think of one other explanation for the partial collapse of the Del Rio boom:

“Some people are asking, does he want to play, or is he a playboy?”

THE KOSAR SHOW Quarterback Bernie Kosar of Miami was going to be the class of this class, the focal point for the photographers and other media people Tuesday, if he had opted for the draft.

Instead, he will take his show to New York in June to be supplementally drafted by Cleveland.

As a rookie, where does Kosar fit in this week’s group of prospects? He figures first, everyone says. Though he has one problem--as an athlete, he is a bit awkward--he is probably the best at reading defenses since Joe Namath.

He has a gift for throwing consistently to the right target.

“Kosar totally understands passing,” Steinberg said. “He gets the ball to the right man in the right place at the right time. He’d have been the top pick if the Bills had known about him in time.”

Joel Buchsbaum of Pro Football Weekly said: “Kosar isn’t a great athlete but he’s a smart passer like (San Diego’s) Dan Fouts--the most underrated quarterback in the history of the game. I can’t believe Fouts has never been in a Super Bowl.”

NEXT YEAR The 1986 draft will have everything this one lacks--including as many as eight running backs: Keith Byars (Ohio State), Bo Jackson (Auburn), Dalton Hilliard (LSU), Allen Pinkett (Notre Dame), Reggie Dupard (SMU), Reuben Mayes (Washington State), Darryl Clack (Arizona State) and Kenneth Davis (TCU).

At least two prominent quarterbacks, Chuck Long of Iowa and Robbie Bosco of BYU, are also coming along.

These and Illinois wide receiver David Williams are possibly the 11 leading Heisman candidates of 1985.

The draft class this spring is nothing like next year’s.

LAST YEAR Chances are, however, that 1985 will be more fruitful in NFL terms than 1984, when only six first round draft choices stood out.

They are Buffalo running back Greg Bell, Pittsburgh wide receiver-kick runner Louis Lipps, offensive linemen Brian Blados of Cincinnati and Ron Solt of Indianapolis and defensive linemen Rick Bryan of Atlanta and Alphonso Carreker of Green Bay.

As the 1984 draft proved, NFL stars don’t come along every spring.

“But stars aren’t the real measure of a draft,” Hickey said. “There was a glamorous first round with six quarterbacks in 1983--and you’ll get a glamorous first round next year--but will you have a draft as solid as this years? I’m not so sure you will. Media people judge a draft by how top-heavy it is in name talent--because they want to write about names--but what really matters is the talent. And I’ll take this year’s talent”